Side Dish

Industrial strength

As with any city's forgotten factory ghost-town neighborhoods, the languishing south-end enclave of Georgetown could easily fade into a distant memory of metal works, sugar mills, and 747s. But, thanks to a coffeehouse and pizza joint, this one will not go gentle into that good night—at least not anytime soon. Once a storefront for a gutter cleaning business, Industrial Coffee (5503 Airport Way, 763-0354) began serving espresso and coffee drinks about a year ago. For the past five months, it's also been the watering hole of choice for many a beer drinker and music fan; Industrial hosts live shows four or five nights a week. Their lunch-through-dinner menu fits the laid-back, no-nonsense environment perfectly. Soups, sandwiches, and salads run from four to six bucks and, like the neighborhood and its industries, they get the job done—the nachos are piled with cheese, the sub sandwich is stacked high with cold cuts. In Georgetown, no one messes around. Tuesday nights, Industrial hosts Two Wheel Tuesdays with dollar Rainiers, two-dollar microbrews, cheap hot dogs, and a temporary lift on the usual cigarette ban. As for the two wheels, the TVs are tuned to motorcycle racing, and you'd better not ask for the remote: "We have a lot of motorcycle fans around here," says owner Mike McCarthy. Industrial's anti-atmosphere works for them; at Stella Pizza & Ale (5511-13 Airport Way, 763-1660) next door, a warm-hued, romantically nostalgic mood functions equally well for local loft-dwellers, young families, and music fans, too. (Both venues are quickly becoming the place for young bands to cut their teeth; Stella has live shows on weekends.) The ceilings are so high they almost evoke the hangars down the street at Boeing, but the space has such a lived-in and loved-in feeling that it's never cold or impersonal. And the food—pastas, salads, and sandwiches as well as the pizza—tastes like it's been not fixed or cooked or slapped together but created, as if someone with a true love for red sauce is working toward some vision in the back. Inventive offerings like the Corson Classic, with sliced Yukon potatoes, hunks of sweet white onions, and piles of Gorgonzola cheese, are spicy, well sauced, and cooked to cheese-bubbling near-perfection. Straightforward, dependable pies are available too; Stella's is, at heart, just a simple pizza place. As other neighborhoods plod blindly onward with established restaurants and clubs fumbling to survive in the up-and-down economy, Georgetown engineers its rebirth quietly and steadily, like a well-oiled machine. llearmonth@seattleweekly.com